It all started off with such high expectations: in honour of Welsh Legends, a pre-match drinky at the Owain Glyndwr. Unfortunately the beer was being served by an amateur, and headless Brains was the result.
Not to worry! A text arrived from a colleague of the mister’s (a Tigers fan) announcing that he was at O’Neill’s, so we made our way there. The colleague was nowhere to be found, and the beer (and wine) was equally shit. The main point of interest was that the owner must be a County Antrim man, judging by the exquisite photographs on the walls.
Next on the agenda was to find somewhere to watch the Munster v Racing match. After considerable traipsing, eventually found a pub that was both showing it and had drinkable booze. Hooray!
As you’ll all know, that was quite an exciting match, ending in a draw.
On to Arms Park for the main event!
Arms Park is a civilised ground that serves Courvoisier doubles. Whoever designed the signage must have been overly-appreciative of said cognac, because the signs in no way resembled any of the seating information on our tickets.
With the help of a friendly usher, we eventually found our seats, in the middle of a garish sea of Leicester supporters. A particularly large-lunged one was sitting directly behind me, and was given to shouting YESTIGAHS every time Leicester touched the ball.
Noticing me flinching, he said, “Sorry, I’ll try to warn you before I shout. But I don’t always know when I’m going to do it.”
“Oh. A bit like Tourette’s, then?”
As for the rugby itself:
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(Yay, try Cardiff.)
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Ah shit.
Further Reading
Weekend team selections start here.
ClydeMillarWynant’s views on known knowns and unknown unknowns.
On the telly this week
Friday 29th November
| Munster v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ulster v Scarlets | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bath v Saracens | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 30th November
| Wales v Barbarians (women) | 11:45 | S4C |
| Wales v Barbarians (men) | 14:45 | Channel 4 |
| Northampton v Leicester | 15:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Treviso v Cardiff | 15:00 | FreeSports / PS2 |
| Connacht v Southern Kings | 17:15 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Dragons v Zebre | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow v Leinster | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ospreys v Cheetahs | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 1st December
| Harlequins v Gloucester | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
In the euro cup
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Or maybe the saffas will come & join the euro time zone.
So many possibilities.
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Chimpie – if they did that based on prior year B&I league qualifications then most teams would forever be in the pish Cup.
Would there be a pisher cup as well?
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South Africa bringing in their Sooper Rugby teams would be the next item on the agenda imo
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Chapel services stealing all the talent from mini rugby on a Sunday morning.
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I doubt there’d be a Europe if there was a new league. Or a contracted playoff thingy at best.
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to 2/3 B&I teams vs French equivalents. Italy receive the shaft of all shafts or their pro teams join the T14.
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Ugh. I watched some of that ‘interview’. What a load of honking boak that knobstocking is. How the flip is this idiot our PM?
Unsurprising he’s avoiding Andrew Neil. Not a massive fan of the man but at least he can do line in forensic questioning. he’d wreck Bojo.
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Anyhoo. B&I league?
Can’t see PRL amongst others being too enamoured of the idea. Suppose it depends how much wonga CVC waft under their nose.
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*applies CPR*
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“Anyhoo. B&I league?”
Feeling this side of the water is that Welsh rugby still pines after those cross -Severn matches from the “old days” , and that they’d drop the rest of the Pro 14 if they got the nod from PRL
I think it’s been a driver in recruiting the SA teams into the PRO14 – you’d miss the Dragons less if you’d gotten the Sharks or Bulls on board…
PRL are probably adverse to sharing the revenue (see the ringfencing row) – but would take a different view (I guess) if CVC showed them the money.
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*Applies black nail polish.*
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I thought you’d be applying beer, craigs.
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ANyone else had something odd happen to blog? Can only view in a wordpress reader, which is really annoying.
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Chimpie – I only drink beer. Applying it would be the work of a madman.
Sorry Beadle.
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That would be applying it orally. Not that I want to be a pedant or anything.
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Generally when applying something orally it works on or inside the mouth rather than fully ingesting it. I prefer to do the latter with beer.
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Remember when the blog was deid?
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Was told a few years back by mrs chimpie & father in law (former teacher) that I couldn’t drink a ‘bit’ of a liquid, only a ‘drop’.
I disagreed based on the definition on the oxford dictionary. Oh how that argument raged. For months. What fun.
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they were wrong.
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Craigs, remember when you were young? You shone like the sun! Better than remembering a deid blog.
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No troubles here, Tim. I have to log in to WordPress to clear a few basic adverts when I join by clicking on the ‘W’, then it works fine including Likes.
The only thing I’m unable to do for some reason is ‘Like’ a new blog.
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I’m not having any trouble either.
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I recall drinking a drop was shorthand for getting rat-arsed. As in ‘yes, I’ve had a drop to drink – what is it to you?’ As spoken to the family member who just poured you through the door.
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End of Day 2 with the clients. Most of them are good blokes, a couple of dickheads, but you get them in every group. What has been hopelessly dismal is that out of 37 people, all business owners or BDMs, not one woman. A bit stunned, to be honest.
I can understand, to a degree, companies not wanting female staff exposed to some of the rougher countries and cities I go to, but this is Milan, FFS. I’m sad and troubled by this.
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Cheers guys, appears to be one of they microsoft reset your computer without asking things. Back to normal now.
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Ken Livingstone in being an arrogant wanker shock
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OT – should have milkshaked him.
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And for balance:
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Shoop-di-woop! Mike Ruddock half way in to the Os, like a Phil Davies onna monthly consulting contract.
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South Africa Under 19s beat Georgia Under 19s in Tblisi 28-21. Thought I’d be able to find some coverage of the game with Georgian commentary. No such luck.
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Do you speak Georgian?
(What language would a Georgian speak. I’m sure a number would speak Russian, however I don’t know… To the internet!)
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You’re right. It’s Georgian. A friend of mine who worked there used Russian.
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Unless they were Mingrellian of course.
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Anyone got any recommendations for getting the ice off windscreens in these cold mornings?
I used a store discount card today, but I only got 20% off.
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Hmmm. Not sure you deserve this, Ticht after that, but here we go. Emmylou, Dolly and Linda (eventually).
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Ticht.
Shame on you.
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I use my nectar card which means I get a free clean windscreen every so often.
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I think a B&I League could be good, although there’s something unclean about the NFL-style conference system that it would inevitably be.
Also I think PRL could easily be brought on board if the new league was more than the sum of its parts (which one would like to hope it would be).
Personally I’d be against ditching the Italian teams but both they and the Bok sides are most vulnerable. PRL is 13 sides and I could see a path into the league for London Scottish and even London Welsh. Depends what they think the primo number of teams is, although you can start smaller and go full NFL with expansion teams, etc.
However, I’m mostly in favour if it’s simultaneous with a global calendar restructure (won’t happen).
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Larry – global calendar? Pre season starts in September. We start with some kind of development or pish Cup. Then we have the Autumn Internationals. The B&I league could run in the winter and spring months. Shorter due to the conference system so three months max. From December to February.
The winners play the champions of France if they want some. Super Rugby would run along side that. 6 nations in March/April. Rest in May. Summer tours. Rest.
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maybe someone should come up with an idea such as an international league of the top 12 or so teams, including 6N, 4N plus a couple of the richest tier 2’s (blazerz gotta lunch), and screw everyone else. Then work that into a global calender?
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change is a-coming, driven by the CVC readies. Sod all I can do about it.
Will just have to hope for the best.
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@Craigs – I think we bin off December and January, actually. Play over the summer (our summer).
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Main thing is to try and align timetables for pro club rugby and international rugby around the world, with as little crossover as possible. This would be of particular benefit to the good-but-skint national sides, Fiji etc, because their players would have the minimum possible clash from playing club and country.
Don’t think amateur or semi-pro rugby would have to change, so your local club team would still be playing in winter snow.
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Larry – what about the tradition of playing in the shit test weather available?
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“Any readers requiring an explanation of the “Bermuda Triangle” jibe will find one on Wikipedia here. Like many of Johnson’s cultural references, this one relates to something prominent in the media in the 1970s.”
Just seen this onna graun. The Bermuda Triangle doesn’t seem obscure to me….
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After me, one two three: “OK, boomer.”
We are getting old, Craigs. These are the signs of oldness. Cultural touchstones change. Billie Eilish, who is a singer I’ve never heard sing but whose name I know because of headlines, apparently was on TV and Van Halen came up and she had never heard of them. This is the way of things. I still think Arcade Fire and Bloc Party are new bands.
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Avril Lavigne caught a lot of flack for not knowing David Bowie’s music when she was a similar age to Eilish now.
The equivalent is me at 17 not knowing who was big in the early 50s, I know some of them now, but I didn’t back then, why would you know music from 30 years ago when you are 17 years old?
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Larry, just wait till people are telling you that your generation of rugby sucks.
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